Unpacking the spatial dimension of income inequality in metropolitan areas of the United States

This study is a cross-sectional ecological analysis of the factors that drive the relationship between income inequality and health in metropolitan areas of the United States. The theory that income inequality is also a spatial phenomenon is developed by investigating economic segregation at the level of central cities and their suburbs as one of the driving factors between income inequality and age standardized mortality rates, in addition to place-based and population characteristics of metropolitan areas as a whole. Study findings suggest that the effects of income inequality on health may be driven by the percent of the metropolitan population that has a high school education; but that other place based characteristics such as the fiscal health of the central city may also be an important factor in the relationship between place and health.